Charles Sale: FA delay makes it tough for Pearce

The timing and importance of the Olympic football draw on April 24 throws further doubt over the wisdom of the FA's decision to delay the naming of their next England manager.

Interim England coach Stuart Pearce is leading preparations for Euro 2012 in the absence of a permanent national team boss on top of his Team GB responsibilities, which are pivotal to the sale of the 1.5million tickets remaining for the Olympic football tournament.

London 2012 are relying on the football draw at Wembley to be shown live on BBC to create interest with so many seats to shift in a Games heading for sell-outs elsewhere.

Pearce is due to cut his long list of 180 players to around 80 before the Wembley date so he can talk about his likely star names - don't bet against David Beckham in this commercial climate - at the draw to drum up ticket sales.

Yet the FA keeping to their plan of announcing an England manager in mid-April at the earliest means Pearce's emergency Euro 2012 responsibilities will only allow him to devote some of his time to his Olympic job, which requires making a judgment call on a lot of footballers over the next three weeks.

Pearce will be scouting for Team GB and Euro 2012 at QPR v Arsenal and Tottenham v Swansea this weekend, with FIFA having made it compulsory for clubs to release Under 23 players for the Olympics.

Olympic dream: David Beckham is expected to feature in Pearce's squad

Meanwhile, the advice of authoritative voices, including former manager Terry Venables, to bring forward the England appointment is being ignored.

But the FA, who do not want to pay Fabio Capello's successor anything like the Italian's ludicrous £6million a year, will certainly be happy with Venables saying: 'I bet an Englishman won't get that.'

Questions may be being asked in the House of Lords by Sir Dave Richards' former FA board colleague Lord Brian Mawhinney about the Premier League chairman's gaffe-laden trip to Qatar where he accused UEFA and FIFA of stealing the game.

But somehow Sir Dave's crass comments weren't even raised at yesterday's 20-club PL chairmen's meeting in London, despite almost four hours of discussions.

Not only is Richards now expected to carry on in his PL role for another 14 months, he's also favourite to become chairman of the newly formed World League Association because of his 'charisma and leadership abilities', according to Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, CEO of European Professional Football Leagues.

The guessing games have started over who will light the flame at London's opening ceremony, with Denis Oswald, chairman of the IOC co-ordination committee, saying it should stay secret 'to the end'.

Oswald, president of the International Rowing Federation, resisted the opportunity to back the claims of his sport's five-time gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave, saying it was a London 2012 decision but didn't have to be a big star and wouldn't be Lord Coe.

An athlete is still most likely, with a young and old Olympian combination an option demonstrating legacy and history.

The desire to keep the showcase under wraps at Vancouver's Winter Games in 2010 meant ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky was told if the fact he was lighting the flame was leaked, there would be a plan B.

LOCOG will need to lay a lot of false trails to keep their torchbearer a mystery up to July 27.

Media darling Gary

Gary Neville, who has made such a surprisingly seamless transition from dressing room to TV pundit, advocates that the England football media travel with and stay in the same hotel as the squad to help rebuild relationships.

Neville lobbied for this when an England player but team–mates disagreed.

The lukewarm FIFA reforms announced yesterday include setting up a two-tier ethics committee with investigative and judicial responsibilities.

Despite having two independent ethics chairmen, the majority of members coming from within FIFA suggests any probe of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups - within their remit - will not have teeth if they happen.

The ethics revamp came from FIFA president Sepp Blatter, rather than Professor Mark Pieth's governance reform proposals.